Citizenisation in the aftermath of domestic violence: the role of family, community and social networks

Abstract

Domestic violence impedes women’s exercise of full participatory citizenship. This article explicates the role of family, community and social networks in the aftermath of an abusive relationship as both an indicator of intimate citizenship as an achieved status and as a facilitator of the process of citizenisation in the private and public spheres. Based on life history interviews with 26 South Asian women in the UK, the findings reveal the myriad ways in which denial of citizenship continues long after, and in part due to, the end of the abusive relationship, and outline women’s efforts to regain a sense of identity, belongingness and membership within their intimate, family and community lives. In doing so, this article advances conceptual understandings of the lived practice of citizenship. It also problematises the binary construction of ‘victims’ versus ‘survivors’, which is premised on a linear and successful journey towards citizenisation following the end of the abusive relationship.